Skolkovo 'Population' Grows by 21

Pointing the way to Skolkovo. The innovation hub could be included in the proposed Moscow Federal District, Vedomosti has reported.
Denis Grishkin

The expansion of Moscow's borders and creation of the Moscow Federal District will not affect Skolkovo, the innovation hub near Moscow, Skolkovo Foundation president Viktor Vekselberg told reporters Monday after presenting participation certificates to 21 new resident companies.

"As far as I know, changes to the project's configuration are being considered. [The expansion] has nothing to do with the Skolkovo project," he said.

Skolkovo is among the areas being considered for inclusion in the new federal district, Vedomosti reported. President Dmitry Medvedev gave instructions to the heads of Moscow and the Moscow region on Friday to come up with suggestions by July 10 for how Moscow can be expanded.

Vekselberg said residents should be able to start moving to Skolkovo in 2014. The first building should be ready by the end of this year and be able to host residents in the first quarter of 2012.

Among the residents hoping to move into the newly constructed buildings are the 21 companies that received their residency certificates Monday.

Most of the new companies are in the energy-efficiency cluster, while others will join the biomedical research and IT clusters.

The companies include RusAl and Optogan, a St. Petersburg firm that develops and produces high-brightness light-emitting diodes and was backed by both Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Biosfera TNK and Technologies of Inverse Problems are among the energy-efficiency companies that have joined the project. Among IT companies that have joined are Hamster Soft and Speaktoit, working on natural language interfaces and talking online products.